Mayor’s staff gets raise after announcement of no cost of living increases

In a year where Metro Nashville’s rank and file employees learned they would not get their promised cost of living increases, Nashville Mayor David Briley gave merit raises to 20 members of his staff; two of whom received 6 percent increases.

One Briley staffer, Chief Strategy Officer Brian Kelsey, got a $7,178 raise, increasing his salary to $126,824. Briley also gave merit-based raises to his department heads.

Briley’s decision to reverse the cost of living adjustments - called COLAs - for Metro employees has created a lot of controversy and tension this year.

Workers like 18-year veteran librarian Bridget Radford complained at a June budget hearing that cutting the cost of living adjustment hurts the people who keep the city running.

"Well, as I look at your list, two people took on additional responsibilities in that time frame," Briley said.

His staff said in a follow-up email that the two staff members who received 6 percent increases had gotten “significant promotions to management-level positions. Their jobs changed entirely,” said Laura Braam, a newly-hired member of Briley’s media team.

Nine of the mayor's staffers who got raises make more than $100,000 per year.

Amons brought the results of her investigation to Metro Council members.

"This is borderline absurd. This kind of defies logic. If we're going to tighten our belt, I think everybody ought to tighten their belt," said Councilman Jonathan Hall.

"It would appear that the rich get richer," Councilman John Cooper said.

"It's not fair. We need to fix that," said Councilwoman Mina Johnson.

The mayor’s direct employees were not the only Metro workers who received this type of merit raise, which is called an Open Range pay increase.

According to Metro’s Human Resources office, Metro employees were given a total of $3.8 million in Open Range increases. The raises were scheduled to take effect in July 2018.

Briley gave 2.5 percent pay raises to most of his department heads; some of those department heads also gave raises to their top managers.

Nancy Whitemore, the Director of General Services, received a $4,067 raise, increasing her salary to $167,127.

The Chief Information Officer Keith Durbin’s salary increased to $167,286 after his raise.

Nashville Fire Chief Will Swann refused his 2.5 percent pay increase, choosing to pass the Open Range money along to 19 administrators under him.

Briley said that although city workers would not get cost of living adjustments this year, 71 percent of the city’s work force could expect their paychecks to increase during the coming year. Workers can get what are called step increases – that’s an annual pay bump until they are at the top of their salary range – or an Open Range raise.

“I certainly wished we could have done the cost of living adjustment, that's what I've been saying all along. But because I was committed to not raising taxes this year we didn't have the revenue necessary to give everybody a COLA,” Briley said.

“Out of the 9,552 Metro employees (not including Metro Schools), 6,813 were eligible for either open-range or step increases this year; 1,299 were not eligible for either because they had already maxed out their pay rates,” Braam wrote in a follow-up email.

“We lost 13 staff members due to attrition and have only replaced seven. As a result, Mayor’s Office salaries are down 11 percent from FY 18 to FY 19. As another way to put it, we have 32 FTEs in the Mayor’s Office, counting the Mayor. Of those, only 23 are filled,” Braam added.

The three highest-paid staffers in the Mayor’s Office did not receive an increase: Matt Wiltshire, the Director of Economic and Community Development, who promoted the MLS stadium deal to Metro Council, remains at his current salary of $162,296.

The salary of Chief of Staff Deborah Dale Mason, who Briley said is leaving his staff, remained at $169,728.

Rich Riebeling, the Mayor’s Chief Operating Officer, who Briley also said is leaving, did not get an increase. His salary is listed at $209,508.

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